Export boost for sales of Glenarm salmon

A £100,000 project at Glenarm Organic Salmon has increased its business outside Northern Ireland to almost 80 per cent of company sales.

The growth has been assisted by support from Invest NI’s Jobs Fund.

John Hood, Invest NI rirector of Food and Tourism, announced support for the business growth strategy during a visit to the company which now employs 13 staff in Glenarm.

Mr Hood said: “This is a very important investment in the product portfolio by a progressive company at a time when the Food and Drink Federation has announced that salmon is now the UK’s leading food export, particularly to huge and dynamic markets such as the US and China.

“As well as the new jobs that are already in place, the investment marks an important step by Glenarm Organic into added value products.

“Our support has been geared to enable the company to exploit the export potential of its salmon, especially the new premium smoked product, with high-end hotels and restaurants worldwide.

“It already has a solid platform for growth in almost 30 markets from San Francisco and New York in the US to Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong.

“The new posts have provided an important boost within this rural community,”

John Russell, managingdirector of Glenarm Organic Salmon, said: “The recent launch of our premium organic smoked salmon is a hugely important stage in the lifecycle of the business.

“Developing value added products from our farmed salmon has long been a key part of our export growth strategy.

“Market feedback has been excellent and has led to encouraging orders from major hotels abroad for the new salmon.

“The smoked salmon has a distinctively rich flavour that comes from a new curing recipe that we have developed with an experienced local seafood curer.

“Invest NI assistance is enabling us to step up global marketing of the new smoked salmon as well as our existing fresh and frozen products. As well as high-end hotels and restaurants, we are targeting upmarket retailers with a premium gift box.”